The streets were bustling with shoppers and Loki found himself struggling to keep a hold of Heimdall. The two had scoured every food stall in the market and had come away with quite a few purchases, thanks to Heimdall's bargaining expertise. Shopping with Freyr had given him a sense of frugalness that even Freyr would have been envious of.
Unwillingly, Loki had benefited from that learning experience. Perhaps Heimdall wasn't quite as bad as he'd thought, aside from all the snide comments along the way, of course. He tried to remember that this was the season for giving and forgiveness.
The season itself seemed to want to bring the two closer together. They hadn't had any major arguments, at least if you didn't count the spat they'd had over who was going to get the last cheese wedge from the sample vendor they'd come across.
But now they seemed content and not under any obligation to destroy the other, at least not yet. Then again, it was always a near thing with Loki and Heimdall. Loki did get his revenge later on, however.
Heimdall had been looking at a watch case and the owner of the stall had told the "little boy" not to touch anything and that he should stay with his father. Loki had tried not to laugh; though he had a feeling he wasn't very successful. He promised that he would keep his "son" in line and promptly pulled Heimdall away by the ear.
That had been the height of Loki's afternoon. It wasn't long after that, the two had encountered a most disturbing occurrence.
They'd been arguing while walking and Heimdall had suddenly found himself on his ass in the street. Some guy had knocked him over while running from some woman that was chasing him. He had her purse and a stack of packages in his hands and was running for all he was worth.
The woman ran right into Loki and caught her before she could fall and hurt herself. "Miss? Is something wrong?"
"That man stole my purse and all the presents I bought!" The woman sobbed, clinging to Loki's shirt. "I don't have the money to replace them! My children…"
Loki looked at Heimdall, who sighed and nodded. They'd have to go after the mugger and teach him a lesson. Even with their enmity, neither could ignore a woman's call for help, or the sincerity in which she asked for their help, whether conscious or not.
Heimdall sent his falcon after the man and when the two finally reached him, he was cowering on the ground, the falcon's talons and beak pecking at his head. Heimdall called off his friend and Loki bodily picked up the man. He yelped and fell against a pair of police officers when two came running over. He looked at the two that had caught him and whimpered, begging the police to take him away and save him from the evil spirits.
Loki just smirked and handed the packages and purse back to the young woman, who blushed and thanked him and his "son" profusely before running off. Loki smirked and winked at Heimdall, who growled and followed. He just couldn't win, even when he was being a good samaritan!